Titans Ride the Mustangs to Their Fifth Straight Home Victory

Fullerton, Calif. -
Cal State Fullerton picked up their second win of the Hawthorn Suite Tournament Saturday afternoon as they defeated SMU 3-1 (22-30, 30-21, 30-26, 30-28). Breanna Trudeau led the Titans players with 17 kills and six blocks as the Titans improve to 7-4 overall and 5-0 at Titan Gym this season.

The Titans barely out-hit the Mustangs .222 to .218 but made the most of their 13 service aces and SMU's 29 errors. Titan setter Julie Giessert led the way with 4 aces with Amanda Pfielschiefter right behind her with 3. SMU managed just 2 against the Titans in the day's second match.

Rachel Giubilato out-killed everyone with her 20 also picking up 17 digs along the way. The Titans Vanessa Vella led in the dig department, collecting 23 to lead all players.

Brittany Moore and Breanna Trudeau each collected six blocks doing most of the work for Fullerton at the net. Natalie Peters also stuffed 6 attempted kills for the Mustangs as both teams blocked to a stalemate at eight a piece.

Geissert bested SMU's setter Madison Hill by one assist picking up 49 in the winning effort.

Fullerton's best game came in the second when they hit .359 to the Mustangs .200 en route to three consecutive wins to take the match.

Fullerton will take on Loyola Marymount at 7:30 to conclude the 2005 Hawthorn Suites Fullerton Classic. SMU will take on UC Riverside at 5:30 p.m.

In Other Matches

In Match 3 of the Hawthorn Suites Fullerton Classic at Titan Gymnasium, UC Riverside swept San Jose State 3-0 (30-16, 30-25, 30-25). The Highlanders jump to 1-0 in the tournament with the Spartans falling to 0-2. The highlanders out-hit the Spartans .328 to .110 behind Jaime DeKiewiet's 15 kills while no Spartan had more than Jennifer Senftleben's nine. San Jose's Jessie Shull led all players with 19 digs in the losing effort. UC Riverside improves to 9-1 while San Jose State evens their record at 5-5. Riverside will play later today against Southern Methodist at 5:30 p.m. with San Jose State coming back at 3 p.m. to take on Loyola Marymount.

In Match Five LMU topped San Jose State in a five-game battle 3-2 (25-30, 30-17, 30-19, 24-30, 15-13) that went down to the wire ending in a two-point victory for the Lions. Krista Housemanm (.528) and Dina DeBernardi (.500) collected 24 and 21 kills respectively and Michelle Look dug 25 kill attempts in the victory. Jennifer Senftleben had 22 kills and 12 digs in the losing cause. San Jose State Fell to 5-6 on the season and 0-3 in the tourney while LMU improved to 8-1 overall and 2-0 in the tourney.